Latest / Hart & Hustle Podcast / Do What Only You Can Do: The Hardest Lesson for Nonprofit Leaders
Transcript
- Efrain: Welcome back to the Heart and Hustle Podcast. I'm Ephrain and we have Miss Yolanda in the building. How you doing, Miss Yolanda? Yolanda Fields: Wonderful Ephraim and so excited to be with you today. Efrain: Same. It is always exciting when I get to see another leader at the table, really, you know, doing some tremendous things. We talked about some of the experiences that you have with your your kids traveling. And even then you say, We're not just traveling, we're also doing some sort of mission, right? We're still doing the good work. Where does that stem from? Where is it that in your heart, wherever you go, you gotta be doing something good, not just enjoying yourself? Yolanda Fields: Yeah, I my parents separated when I was really young. So my mom is, you know, just I think all for my other two siblings, for all of us, she's our hero. But especially for me because I'm the oldest. And it doesn't matter how little we had. She always shared. people knew that they could come to our house. We lived in subsidized housing. We were the Kool-Aid house. My mom always had a pitcher Kool-Aid. She always had deli meat that somebody could grab cheese, crackers, and a little bit of meat. And so it was this way of showing up in community, no matter what we thought we lacked, recognizing that we always had something to give. Efrain: I love how you mentioned the Kool-Aid lady. Friends remind remind me that my mom was the flip lady. I don't know if you guys call it flip. Is that what you guys call it? What do you guys call it? You know what I'm talking about though, right? A flip? It's it's like Yolanda Fields: No, say Efrain: frozen Kool-Aid in a cup and you just eat it frozen. We call it limbe in Yolanda Fields: it like we call Efrain: Spanish. Yolanda Fields: we call it like ICE's. Okay. Okay. Efrain: Okay, okay, okay. So so we call it a flip cup, or in Spanish we call it a limbe, and and she would sell twenty five, fifty cents and it was like different flavors of Kool-Aid, or it was sometimes like a I don't know, a duse de leche, flip and Yolanda Fields: Yes. Efrain: I used to flip the take the ice and flip it upside down and eat it from the bottom 'cause that's where all the flavor was at. But it's just funny how we talk about experiences and we talk about those memories, Yolanda Fields: That's great. Efrain: all that matters 'cause that's how people even Yolanda Fields: Yeah. Efrain: remember us. Those were friends that told us told us that. I'm like My mom used to sell flips like that? I I didn't even realize. But the things that she would do to keep food on the table as well, right? Those are the things Yolanda Fields: So yeah. Yeah, yes. Efrain: that she was kinda doing to keep food on the table. and you're still doing the work. You're now leading an organization. What is the organization today? Yolanda Fields: Breakthrough Urban Ministries located on the west side of Chicago in a community called Garfield Park, where our work is comprehensive in housing, health and wellness, youth and education development, and economic development with the goal of helping our neighbors to thrive. And so we want to create safe spaces where everybody feels like they are contributing, but also have what they need. Efrain: Born and raised in Chicago. Yolanda Fields: I am not. I have been here for about thirty-five years now, but I'm a St. Louis native. Efrain: You you Chicago at this point. You thirty five years. You Chicago. what keeps you in Chicago, actually? so many people think Chicago and it doesn't have the I would say the the prettiest sometimes stories to tell. I've had my own friends in Chicago, but I'm guessing there's different sides of Chicago. There's some beauty to Chicago. Tell us what kept you at Chicago thirty seven years. Yolanda Fields: Yeah, there are lots of opportunities to belong, I think, in Chicago. There are 77 communities. Each of those communities have a different feel and flair. And so I just feel like whatever you need, you can find it here. and we are a beautiful large city. And I think that some people come and are just overtaken with the beauty. We've got a lake front. I mean, it it really is I think the best of big city, but also what could feel like small living, small city living when you are in community. Efrain: Love it. How how big is the organization that you're you guys are you guys have? how many employees? Yolanda Fields: Yeah, we serve about 20,000 people annually. We have 140 people on staff and six facilities on our campus. Efrain: Okay, so how does someone like Miss Yolanda get to this space? She always wanted to run an organization or just kinda fell on your lap, life be life and you get here. What does that that journey look like? Yolanda Fields: I think September eleventh was a defining moment for many of us. It was eleven days before I got married. I was home on vacation preparing all of the things for the wedding, had the volume down on the television, and decided that something was happening. I couldn't really tell what it was, and I turned up the volume and there was still silence. And that went on for about maybe five to ten seconds. And then finally the news commentator said, I don't believe it. The second tower is down. And that was such a pivotal moment. It was like I didn't fully understand what was happening. The more that they talked, just the more impacted I felt. Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: and it was at that moment that I really felt like God was saying I would not spend sort of the rest of my career growing a corporation's bottom line. And that he had created me for more. Efrain: What were you doing in the corporate world? Yolanda Fields: And so I was working at ATT Efrain: Okay. Yolanda Fields: as a supervisor, had been there 10 years. And, you know, I I thought there was more. I couldn't articulate what that more was. But I think sev September 11th for me started to pull at all of the things that I have been passionate about. Women in crisis, our family and children, not Efrain: Mm-hmm. Yolanda Fields: having basic needs met. just growing up in a household where my mom worked every single day and still struggled, to to have ends meet. They were just kind of waving to each other from afar. And so I knew that, you know, that Efrain: Ha ha ha. Yolanda Fields: was a space at some point I wanted to live in. I just did not imagine doing it as a career. Efrain: I 9-11 was so tough. Have you got to experience their memorial, their their museum that they have? Yolanda Fields: Yes. Efrain: my god. Like I went on a trip to New York just kind of random and we ended up at an Irish pub one night and gentlemen was like he he he actually was just I guess a regular at this bar, but traveled from I think probably Florida. And he says, Hey man, have you ever seen the photo album here? And I'm like, No. So calls the owner over and the owner brings this photo album and this photo album is literally what it looked like nine eleven outside of his his bar. And he talked about almost losing the bar, obviously 'cause of the cleanup. And throughout the bar you see all these patches from the firefighters, police department, cause he would actually you know, serve them as they were cleaning up and doing all these things. And he says, Man, if you have some chance, you have to go to the 911 memorial. Just make sure you do something Yolanda Fields: Powerful. Efrain: funned at the end of it. And I completely understand why he says, make sure you do something that just kind of picks you up. Because your story, you know, of how you experienced it, you know, were home getting ready for a wedding. For me, I was this bad little kid that was at home listening to the radio because I was suspended. And all I and back in the day to even think that we're listening to radio at home is crazy. But I was listening to the radio and that's how I heard it. And so I didn't I didn't I don't really remember it like some people remember it, right? Cause I wasn't in the classroom. I wasn't there with everyone else. But I sit here and I pick up these phones and that's what got me. Like picking up the phones of people's last call. And I would always remember this one that it was a lady and she was just like so calm and just saying to her husband, I love you. I'm not come I'm not gonna make it home. Just tell the kids I love them. And how like Almost at peace she was, it was just so scary. And to see it it was a very for whoever has not gone to that nine eleven memorial, it is a very sad, but it is very I I think worth the visit. You get to really learn about a lot about that day. and to know that we were as young kids, you don't realize the things that we're a part of. COVID, these are things that we will actually continue Yolanda Fields: Yeah. Efrain: to talk about that were very impactful in our country. And we continue to fight, we continue to show up, meet people at where they're at. that's what it looks like to do passion work. it is it is very, very, very tough time. So what did you learn about the nonprofit world making that pivot? You talk about corporate to the nonprofit space. Some don't even realize that nonprofit spaces exist or why they exist or that they're actually a business and you have to have this business mindset to run them. What what did you learn about that? Yolanda Fields: Yeah, I think that there were several lessons right away. Most of them were more personal than professional, right? So I went into an environment where the things that allowed me to really excel in a corporate environment were challenged. and so the first thing was that, you know, people really are the best directors of their lives. And so this idea sometimes that we see people in certain situations and while we can speak into them, it really is people who have agency over their lives. And the best we can do is partner with them, right? To change the trajectory of their lives. So there was something humbling about not having answers, not having an exact process or protocol. To walk through some of the scenarios that I would experience. So that was, you know, probably a big thing for me. And then I think the second thing is, I don't think I realized it, you know, there is a difference when you leave work because the day has been long and you've just done a lot of things. But coming into a nonprofit world that really is focused in human services, you have all the things that you would have in the corporate world, plus the fact that you have met people sometimes on their worst day. And that what they have experienced is so heavy for them. And there's this way that vicarious trauma shows up from their situation as you interact with them, and just how exhausting, you know, that is. And so that was the second thing that I learned Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: that if I thought I was moving into something that was gonna be, you know, a lot less work, that definitely was not the case. And then I think for me, the last thing. I learned about community is that we have answers to the challenges that we face. And if people are willing to coengineer solutions together, that we can go so much farther. Efrain: I love that. And it you are right. It is very tough work. I would say also fulfilling, right? Because those moments where you get to s see somebody, as you mentioned, really work with us and take control of their lives, that's the win, right? When we talk Yolanda Fields: It is. Efrain: about this space is not about paychecks, it's about purpose and passion. I say that all the time. And it's because when you see somebody be able to take control of their lives and know their worth and see their value and humanity and able to pivot and make that shift, that's what it looks like of meeting people out where they're at and really helping them through life. So that we get to do this sometimes almost feel like it's selfless, right? But it's also selfish because we learn so much about people. We learn so much about humanity. We learn so much on as you mentioned. sometimes someone's not having the best day ever. So when we're out at a Starbucks or when we're out at a public or whatever that may look like, it's like be kind to one another. I think we lose that at times. And you having front row seats on what happens to people doesn't matter the color of your skin, doesn't matter how much money you have. It could happen to any of us one Yolanda Fields: Yes. Efrain: day to another. Yolanda, I love stories and I know you have a story of something that really would be impactful and continues to fuel you to do this day in and day out. You have a story of someone's life that has really been impacted because of the work that you guys do? Yolanda Fields: Yeah, I think that there are lots of stories of people who have been impacted across sort of the domains that we work. But I think one of the stories that I have been impacted by when I first started, so I've been at Breakthrough for 23 years now. And when I started here, I started as the director of a ministry where we were reaching women who were being sex trafficked. and then I started directing our shelter for women who were unhoused. And I can recall at the time I was having a commute that sometimes could be over an hour. And by the time I got to work, I felt totally exhausted and irritated. And one morning I walked in, there was an older woman who every day would ride her bike to the lakefront. And so we are probably about five or six miles from the lakefront where our Our building is located. And she would ride and come back in invigorated. Well, this morning it was pouring down. And she was coming back in from her trip from you know the west side to the lakefront. And when she came in the door, she and I were coming together and she said, Good morning, Yolanda. Isn't the sun just amazing today? And I was like, Lady, are you kidding me? Efrain: Mm-hmm. Yolanda Fields: And I knew, you know, a little bit about her story. you know, she went on, she left successfully for my program, you know, returned to family, got housing. You know, her story is beautiful, but the impact it had on my life is that how dare I have my whole world just blown up because of traffic and a little rain when here there is someone who has no resources, who has done what she always does. despite the weather or anything that she may have been feeling, and then to have this disposition that was still all sunny and roses in the midst of all of that. Efrain: Yeah. I was telling my wife just earlier today about this book that I started reading called The Compound Effect and is the discipline and the little things that you continue to do that allows you to just really move that mountain, to really, s see past the situation that you're in today. And so many times that small little thing, whether good or bad, could really change us. And for her it was changing that mindset to believe that, hey, as you just said, everything is not really bad, as bad as we think it is. We got to change that mindset. We got to put one foot, forward in front of the other because that's what it looks like to really make that change. That's what it really looks like to really work together. and to so, you know, I I heard this saying when I was younger and it's like, give me show me your five friends and I'll show you your future. I get it. Who are those five people that you talk to every single day that's pouring into you? That makes complete difference. When I think of why I got where I'm at today, it was people that seen more in me than I was able to see in myself. Yolanda, Who are those people that have pushed you to be at the seat that you're in today? At you know, at the head of the table, because you didn't you didn't think it was possible. But there's someone that says, no, you got this, Yolanda. Who are those people? Yolanda Fields: Yeah, I've got, a team of people that I rely on daily, but also some people historically who have paved the way for me. You know, like the first one was my grandmother. She was the first sort of advocate that I knew. She was the one who, you know, owned a house. And was able to buy it because she was doing somebody else's laundry, and then joined up with an organization, took the Greyhound bus all over, right? So that was sort of my first initial introduction to how we show up for other people. And she has always, you know, said to her grandchildren, you can do whatever you want to do. It is possible. And so I think I carry her with me daily and hear that in the back of my mind. I think that there are some other people that are around me. My very first supervisor when I came into the nonprofit space, it was just a part-time job. And you know, I started to share with her the dreams and the vision that I have for serving, you know, women and children. And she would say, You could do that. You you've got more experience than you think you have. And she and I still talk. In fact, we're meeting for lunch next week. So she is, you know, one one in that crew. And then my sister, my sister is younger, but she and I strategically encourage one another. We bounce ideas off of one another. She's in education, totally different field, but also has the same heart and passion for the work that we both get to do in the lives of other people. so she is in that list. And then my husband is amazing. He is a pastor who encourages me. I call him my pastor husband because he is the one when I'm saying I don't know what to do about this. Like, you know, we're looking at workforce reductions. I I can't do it. I like there's not another day that I could do this work. And he, you know, consistently encourages me to continue on. And then at Breakthrough, I am so blessed to have. have a group of individuals who have supported our work from day one. Right. So we have been in existence for 31 years. And when I first started in the executive director role, there were about five women who have been with us since the beginning who took turns praying for me. Over the Efrain: Wow. Yolanda Fields: course of six months, reaching out, just saying, Hey, we're thinking about you today, dropping notes. And each one of them I am still in contact with today. And they bring different things around thought partnership to the relationship. And so I I've got just a crew of loving people. I've got folks at my church who just call and say, Girl, I'm thinking about you, love you, bye. And I just love so much being a part of a community Efrain: I love it. Yolanda Fields: where people care. Efrain: I early in the conversation as you're talking, every time you start talking, I'm like, Man, she's speaking a word, like sh she must be a pastor or something. And then you're a pastor's wife. It it makes all sense now while you're s like I'm sitting here just listening, like this is good stuff. And you usually get it around those that are really passionate about the work that they do, but even more when you realize that there is a pastor involved somewhere, whether it's your husband, whether it's you that's physically doing it, I can imagine that you you are the one spreading the word or spreading the messages. Do do you ever do you ever find yourself in a place that you forget that maybe you are the head of the table and you're just here boots on the ground doing the work like everybody else? Cause that's what's so unique about a nonprofit is that you don't just wear one hat. You wear about 10 multiple hats. every day is a new day, it's a creative Yolanda Fields: Yes. Efrain: day. You gotta pivot, you gotta think outside the box. Do you find yourself in those places where it's not just, hey, I'm leading an organization, I'm boots on the ground, doing the work. Yolanda Fields: Yeah, 23 years I've been here and for the last six I've been in this role leading. And one of the things that I still struggle with is creating opportunities for other people to do what only they can do while I focus on only what I can do, right? Like that is the challenge. And so even right now, we've just launched a new program. We opened a building, an apartment building, 14 units, gorgeous space. but it is really designed for people who are moving. so our work is you know mostly focused around poverty elimination. But then there's this desire and vision we have to help people move into spaces where they can start generating wealth. And we know one way to do that is home ownership. Efrain: Yep. Yolanda Fields: And so this new project has been online for 90 days. And when I tell you from writing, creating the program model to the processes and protocols around it, like I know that I have been just too involved in that way, but I think sometimes that is the way that showing up in a nonprofit organization differs. Than a corporation where you've got somebody that owns everything. Sometimes, you know, what is owned by you as the leader goes beyond what people would assign to the executive director role. And Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: so, yeah, I'm experiencing that often and trying to remind myself: do what only you can do. It is. Efrain: Yeah, it is very hard because sometimes it's also building something from scratch. So how do you delegate that when it hasn't ever been built? Right. And I've experienced that recently. It like, Efraine, tell me what I gotta here. And I'm like, I really can't tell you Yolanda Fields: Can't Efrain: because I don't even know. I'm trying to the the analogy I heard recently is like we're trying to fly a plane while building it at the same time, And Yolanda Fields: Yes, so true. Efrain: as the leader, you got to really make sure we are leading this plane doesn't go down because we understand the impact that it actually provides on the other side. Let's talk about some of the programs. you mentioned, the the housing, you talked about what what you guys mission really is about. How many programs? What does people day to day look like as they're enter facility and and the the needs. Yolanda Fields: Yeah, let me first start by saying what has guided the growth that we've experienced over especially the last 23 years or 27, I would say, has really been a strategic plan. So every five years we do the strategic plan, we listen. And then we execute on what we've heard. And so we started as an organization providing housing. You know, that was the service. Emergency shelters to men. We moved to a different part of town, started to serve women. And so now today, if you walk on Breakthroughs campus, there are two doors that you can enter: one that serves men who are experiencing homelessness and one that serves women. And the goal there really is to help build. People up and help them to transition to stable housing. And so Efrain: Love it. Yolanda Fields: that's health and wellness, it's access to medical care, to behavior health intervention, healing-centered responses to the things that have occurred in their lives, workforce development, and then access to all of the things that they might individually need to move into more stable places. Now, if you start at the opposite end of our campus, you will enter our family plex. 42,000 plus square feet. It is dedicated to our youth and education development component, where we are serving 71 of the cutest young people, our three to five year olds and our early preschool program, and then our after school program for kindergarten through eighth graders, our high school program, and then early career. And so this sort of one-stop shopping for all of our students. Ensuring that those who what I say to people all the time have parents like me, right? My husband and I will drive Uber. We've got two kids right now in college. We will do whatever needs to be done, right? We are mountain moving parents. There are some Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: children nobody's moving mountains for in our community. And so we want to make sure that both sets of students find what they need when they enter the family plex. And then if you walk down, just in the middle of the block on That same block. We have a fresh market. and that fresh market is a different sort of twist on a food pantry. It looks like a market. There's shelves. People walk in, they have a they're given a basket, they select from the shelves what they need, they have an ax access to a community health worker. So they could sit down, talk about their lives, and then we make introductions, connections, referrals for the things that they may need, you know, pertaining just their medical health. And so there's this comprehensive way. And then if you walk into the next block, there's our community violence intervention hub where we've got outreach workers, case managers, and victims advocates who are reaching those who are most at risk at either becoming victims. are perpetrators of violence. And so through all of those programs, you know, the bit the vision that I have is bold, right? I say I want every young person in our community to be well and prepare for the next level. I want everybody to have a home, nobody to be hungry, that people are not just getting their immediate needs met, but they are creating skills that help them to build wealth. And that together we are creating a thriving community. Efrain: That's amazing. a lot, a lot definitely happening. A one stop shop. How do you communicate these resources, these programs back to the community? because it's out there. I always say things are in our own backyards and sometimes we don't know about it. So how do we continue to engage with these folks? I think with technology now, there's definitely so many different ways and and nonprofits tend sometimes to kind of be slow at at adopting some of these things, but as big as your organization is. You guys are not on on on paper no more. Okay. You guys I can imagine have data. What does that look like when it comes to communicating and staying engagement? Is it emails? Is it website? Is it social? Could I can imagine Yolanda Fields: Yeah. Efrain: there's just something strategic around that as well. Yolanda Fields: Yeah, we've got a department that has a concentrated sort of what I say resource around communication and marketing, but also, you know, they house the folks who write our grants. And so there is this deep level of understanding about our organization and our community that lives there. And so we have monthly community conversations where we're bringing community together for a meal. And to just converse about different topics and making resources available. Our outreach team does canvassing at least four days a week, where they are literally in the community handing out, you know, just different flyers, letting people know what's going on. And any of the doors that you might walk in. We've got, you know, just physical pieces of paper. And then a lot of what is happening in our community, whether it's us or even some of our partners we put on our website. Efrain: I love it. Yeah, we got to spread the word. There's so much going on. Yolanda Fields: Yeah. Efrain: You just mentioned there's thousands of people being helped. We gotta continue to double that, triple that, right? really Yolanda Fields: Yes. Efrain: and what that actually looks like. but I love that you guys are meeting people out where they're at. You've talked about growth. You talked about the things that you guys have now added. is there anything else that you guys have in the works? I'm an accountability partner. I love to next time we talk and say, Yolanda, remember you told me about XYZ? What does that plan look like? You talked about five year plan strategically. I could imagine there's some good things Yolanda Fields: Yeah. Efrain: on the horizon. Yolanda Fields: So to be honest with you, this was really a difficult moment for me. We are being impacted by policy changes, which means that, you know, we are not sure about funding for some of our programs. So we're, you know, developing sustainability plans, but we are also looking at the data around us and trying to make sure that we understand what it means, right? So for example, we've got more investment in our community than we've seen over the last 25 years. Yet our eviction rate for you know some of the tenants that live in our community is twice the Chicago average. we know that 60% of those that are living in our community are rent-burdened. And so there's this data that is emerging that in some ways is contradicting itself. There has also been an 11% increase on household income. So 11% increase of families who are earning $125,000 or more a year. There's been an increase on home ownership. And so I need to understand that. before we launch into another strategic plan. And so what I've said to our board is that we'd like to take the next year for strategic learning. We want to get, you know, in our community, the community conversations are great, but we want to have some strategic conversations around the challenges, the successes that people are experiencing, what solutions people think are necessary to solve some of the biggest challenges, what breakdowns Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: Breakthrough's role could be, how we can co-author solutions. Like honestly, right now when I am walking our four blocks, what people say to me is, Yolanda, what is Breakthrough gonna do about any Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: Yeah, what are we gonna do? And so there is, you know, there is an opportunity, I think, to do a better job of of working collaboratively in community to create what we all desire for our community. Efrain: I can imagine you successful because you have these strengths that I really want to talk about because you did talk about a weakness which is like sometimes maybe delegating some of the work or whatever that may look like. But what do you think makes you successful? What are those things as a leader that has got you this far in life? Yolanda Fields: it sounds like an oxymoron, right? Because you you can't say you're humble, right? Like that's but it is a posture of humility, right? Like there are so many times where I am suspending assumptions because I might walk into a situation thinking I understand what the situation is and what is needed. And then, there's this pause that I take and I'm like, no, you you know what you see, but you don't know what led to what you saw, and you don't know any of the other things. And so it is whether I am talking about how I lead our executive team or how I show up in any of the spaces that we're in or how I talk about the work. There's this idea that I don't know at all. I I don't. I've got twenty three years of experience and it's just that. It is experience. and that there are ways that we have to show up in this space that if we're gonna gain more experience that's gonna be valuable, that sometimes we have to suspend our assumptions about things. So I think that is, you know, the It it's something that I'm building more and more each day. but I think that it is the thing that allows me to sit in a variety of rooms, to be able to sit down with, you know, my neighbors who are who have experienced violence firsthand. And also, you know, to be able to communicate with our donors who want to, you know, their return on investment. It's like I don't walk into those conversations already assured of what things might appeal to them. And what I should be talking about, right? And so it's getting curious, asking those questions. I think that is one of the things that I'm growing. Efrain: I love it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think those are all great qualities and that's what makes you so successful at what you do. when we think about legacy, you're clearly knocking things out the park as you continue to just get older and at some point you're going to have to hang up the boots. When is that time? What do you want to be remembered you know, by or as as in the community? Yolanda Fields: Yeah. I I I'm asked this often and it seems too simplistic to most people, but it is really that I have made Jesus known. Efrain: Mm. Yolanda Fields: So here we talk about being a faith-based organization. We don't demand that somebody listen to the gospel, read the Bible. It is showing up with radical hospitality and relentless engagement. Those are the ways that we think Christ is most embodied here in our work. And so for me, it's I want Before you even see me walk through the door, that you feel the love that I am bringing with me. And that that love is the ultimate demonstration of who Christ is. and that that just permeates everything. That is the thing that I want to be remembered for. That, you know, people's like, no, she was the real deal. Like, no, she loved people for real. And so that, yeah. Efrain: So we talk about the community. So I love that. How about your kids? What do you want your kids to remember mom as and what the work that she did for others? Yolanda Fields: that's an interesting question at this stage. I've got an eighteen year old and my oldest turns twenty-one today. And we're at that stage and you probably are not there yet. But I don't know anything. I can't dress myself, I can't comb my own hair. You know, it's like, Mom, are you wearing it? Did you who did you comb your you know? So I'm just like at this point, I want us to get past where we are. So that they can someday, you know, say, Mom was consistent. You know, the way that she demonstrated Christ out in the street, is the same way that we knew her at home. Efrain: Yeah. I would say Yolanda, there's something special in what you just said that the kids though are confident enough to say that to their mom because not everyone has those relationships. So it goes to show what you've been able to build for those kids to even be able to want to say those things. Because I'll tell you what, I I'm thirty six years old now, really starting to build a relationship with my mom. so that your kids have that at eighteen and twenty one, that's because they're comfortable and it goes to show what you've been able to build at home. Not everyone has it. So kudos to you. I I have a two and a five year old and I always say I I wish that my kids, could come back and understand that home is home and that they can always call and that they make fun of me, make the jokes like be all good, right? That's what we want in in our in our lives. I didn't have that. So it's how do we continue to build that and really break cycles? Seems like Yolanda, you're doing your thing, 'cause for the kids to come at you like that, that's a good thing actually. That's that's love. That's how Yolanda Fields: And they come. Efrain: they love you. Yolanda, how Yolanda Fields: Yeah. Efrain: can people get involved into what you're doing? I want people to be able to take a look at the website, maybe whether it's volunteer, whether it's monetary, whether it's whatever it may look like for you guys, how can someone get involved? What are the websites, socials, all that good stuff? Yolanda Fields: Sure. The very first thing I think is to take a look at our website or the socials. You can find us at breakthrough.org and on any platform at Breakthrough. there are a couple ways that we invite people to participate in the work that's being done in partnership with our community. One is if you are local, get involved, right? We've got six doors that you can enter in and there are volunteer opportunities in each one. You can serve. meals for those who are experiencing homelessness. You can tutor, you can coach. I mean you have a desire we have a need. If you want to offer thought, partnership around data collection, ways that we might more creatively use AI. I mean Any of those things I think we are totally open for and have created pathways that make connection very easy. And then you can always support our work monetarily. We we have a $16 million budget. 42% of that comes from the government. The rest of it is private foundations and individuals. And so we want to be able to sustain our work for as long Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: as it's needed. The big vision I have is that in 50 years. We will not be doing this work the way that we're doing it because we've made impact and our neighbors are now creating their own safety net services. Efrain: Love that. I love that so much. And if you could just speak to a leader as we end this this conversation is as you mentioned, so many people are struggling today because it is a very tough time for nonprofits, healthcare is higher ed because the funding. And I think so many people just gotta hear someone like yourself, just kind of words encouragement. What do you tell those leaders that are probably forgetting their why and why they got started or why they do the work? What do you say to them? Yolanda Fields: Yeah, I think it's just that. Remember why you decided to do the things that you are doing and think about those who are most impacted by the work that you're doing. And then I would also say just I don't think in nonprofits we have learned to allow ourselves enough grace to be comfortable with some of our failures. They are lessons, right? And we fail forward, right? Don't waddle in it. Like there isn't a thing we can do about what decision that was made on yesterday that didn't turn out the way that we had hoped. And so it is be encouraged. You are not alone. There are people around you that you are ignoring right now who want to breathe Efrain: Yeah. Yolanda Fields: life into you. And so take them up on some of those offers. Efrain: I love it. Come on now with the word. Yes, ma'am. Yolanda, thank you so much for taking this time. Happy birthday to your daughter 21 today. Lord, that just it scares me for you, okay? I'm scared for you. I just want you to know, Yolanda. But now may she enjoy her birthday. Yolanda Fields: Thank you. Yes. Yes. Yes. Efrain: May you guys celebrate and have a good time. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing in your community, for just never giving up on people. because it is so important that we just meet people where they're at, we're kind to individuals, we uplift individuals. in their in their times of of the unknown i would even say failure of just the unknown sometimes we're just stuck in the unknown and it's Yolanda it is your people it is a community that shows up and allows people to know that no I actually got something in me I just needed that booth so if you guys are still watching make sure you guys check out Yolanda check out the website check out what they're doing become a part of it whether that's donations whether that's volunteering I always say volunteers shouts out to y'all y'all are underrated and underpaid okay because they don't get paid for it Yolanda Fields: Okay. Efrain: Well it definitely still show So we thank guys. I'm Ephraim. This is Yolanda. And we'll catch you guys the next one. Later. Yolanda Fields: Thank